Outside foot down in a corner, surely?

Depends on the corner. Generally ride with outside foot forward and drop the crank if it’s needed, but even this is over simplifying things.

moonboy: I know I did that a few times but I was soloing and going quick when it was easy to do so but not necessarily having the energy or motivation to ask for the pass and then wind it back up to speed again…

Quite often it was easier to wait a bit for a known passing spot rather than going charging off round the outside off piste and burn another match.

It’s why I largely commute offroad these days…

wallop: tbh it’s largely not that bad. I soloed and was subjected to only one really dire overtake. I also had a few that were ok just a little surprising – I shouted ‘call it better next time’ and got a pretty sincere sorry from each.

Talking of the start and the bottle necks. I’ve often wondered whether doing the run in the same place as the afternoon starters might help? It’ll stop the corner cutting and going straight into a climb should think the pack out a bit. Hell, why not go down to the deer park and make everyone haul it up the road and round? Can still go straight into the event village and start a lap proper – someone then tapes the course off again before the first team riders get a chance to come round…

Oh I did have to give some sod a telling off after mowing down some 12 year old kid out on course. Shouting “watch out” while doing over 20mph in downhill singletrack is likely to make them panic and stop in the trail, not make them actually move. It was very poor form!

Graham, I saw you walking the big hill a few times. I didn’t walk it once yet you still managed to lap me the one time, so fair bloody play! You must have been hoofing around the rest of the course. I assume you are going to do the SDW double at some point with form like that?

You don’t look all that chubby either!

I dipped into that range a few times 🙂

Si, it was more a dig at the weight of the bike 😛

Got me too Neil, cheers!

Ah the Ariel, I thought that bit along the bottom of the campsite suddenly got deeper, more rutted and soggier.

Makka Pakka is a boob right?

Yep, they’ve got you in on 8:00:00 – nowt jammier than that!

Although pleased to see you did in fact get in on that final one!

13 laps Rich 😛

Although I reckon on your Edict you’d have been right up there!

If anyone has no 344 that would be great!

That was a great race, and my best solo result to date – 10th was well above my expectations and surprised to only be 2 laps down on the winner. Although was later disappointed to find out I was only 9 minutes off of 7th!

The course was surprisingly brutal in the end – it’s amazing how sapping some of the rollers can get when you’re struggling to get enough speed up to just pump through them effortlessly like you did on the first lap!

In a fair bit of pain today though :-/

Salmonella was to suspected for me eventually getting Pericarditis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pericarditis

Yeah that was fun.

Loco +1

Jam – Town Called Malice

It clears out the old to make way for the new.

Camping stove and a Moka pot?

It’s “you’re wrong”, as in “you are wrong”. Just pointing it out while we’re bashing people for lacking a grasp of GCSE level concepts.

Doc Fox is the Mandelson of the Condems, mind boggling lack of judgement and inability to spot a hanger on.

Runs a good constituency though as far as I can see. I wasn’t happy to see the Tories in No.10, but I’m happy with him as my MP on the whole. If he loses his cabinet spot, will he be forced to step down as MP too?

I’m confused, I’ve got a 100mm hardtail but also a full susser. Am I purist or does the full susser cancel the 100mm hardtail out?

THESE THINGS MATTER DAMMIT!

Surprisingly good area to ride in the wet on the whole actually.

Yeah, don’t get your RAM from Apple, just take the cheapest option and buy it from Crucial.

Get the 27″ if you can…

Blimey, down in the west country, C-Max 2.0 TDCi, only 3 yrs no claims (as was on Wife’s insurance before that), about £500 which I thought was steep given it was £500 3 years ago with no NCB.

Has anyone? I’m happy with the last section starting with the mini rock garden, but the upper section perplexing me.

It’ll come, need a big set of lungs to keep the momentum up and try backing off just a little bit, slower is faster on some of those twisty bits if that makes sense.

Whats that new bit in AC by the gap in the wall for 50 acre about? It doesn’t seem to ride right! Anyone know what i mean?

Again, a few runs and it rides ok, it was worse before IMO, and I the new bit will work better for Oktoberfest.

Kingtut, and anyone else doing lap after lap of the course – why? You’ll be riding round it for up to 8 hours in a couple of weeks’ time…

Meh, it’s on my commute home, would be rude not to duck in for a spin 🙂

Haha, the pumptrack! So glad I was having my first go at 7:30am when I binned it on the middle/tightest turn. Rather than my original plan to get there at 6pm on the way home when it would no doubt be full of school kids nailing the doubles and getting round twice without a fraction of a crank turn.

do five owners get a bad image then?

They’re normally a bit trollish about their ownership. I’ll happily sing about how well it rides and its refreshing simplicity and ease of maintenance. But no bike is a Jesus-bike and there’s a few five owners on here that create a poor stereotype for other owners.

I really like my Five but I hate being identified as a ‘Five owner’… 😳

KCNC finishing kit is alright, it’s anything mechanical that you need to watch out for IME…

Maybe it’s a fruit thing but I’m a big fan of Apples and Oranges.

There I said it!

Sorry DezB consider this me dropping it. I guess I’ve got a chip on my shoulder as in my five mile commute I get more cars give me what I consider to be too little space than I do cars that actually give me enough space.

Personally for me, if I could put my hand out and touch the car, it’s too little (if I signaled you’d take my arm off). Sadly, I could put my hand out and touch the car most of the time.

DezB – so as long as you don’t brush a cyclist’s bars, you’ve left enough room? 🙄

IIRC, the Highway Code says “leave as much room as you would when overtaking a car”. It does not say “leave a cars width when overtaking a bicycle”

Ah but that image I posted is actually from Direct.gov, whether that’s what it actually says or not in the code, they’re still implying it in their literature. Again conflicting stuff.

Because, being a cyclist, he would always be correct?

Or perhaps because he’s the vulnerable one in this situation and has a better view of the situation.

Read it again.

To be honest, the highway code says similar but different things in 3 different places alone so yeah, it’s all conflicting. But at the end of the day, if the guy on the bike thinks you passed too close, the opinion of the guy in the 1 ton box doesn’t really count IMO.

DezB: it’s from the Highway code on Direct.gov, my point was, whether you agree with it or not, according to the highway code, less than a car width is too little room to leave.

Tbh I think a car’s width is excessive but even this morning coming in, I barely got 50cm far more often than I’d have liked.